President Joe Biden is receiving backlash from the families of 9/11 victims for being “flippant” and “tone deaf” in his speech Monday, when the president falsely claimed to have visited Ground Zero immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
During the president’s speech Monday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, he stated, “Ground Zero in New York — I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building. And I felt like I was looking through the gates of Hell, it looked so devastating because of the way you could — from where you could stand.”
However, according to Fox News, Biden, who was a senator at the time of 9/11, did not visit Ground Zero until nine days after the terrorist attacks. The White House acknowledged this fact Monday, sharing that Biden visited Ground Zero as part of the Senate delegation on Sept. 20, 2001.
In response to Biden’s false claim, media personality Benny Johnson tweeted, “Joe said he was at Ground Zero the day after the attack. Nope. CSPAN shows Joe on the Senate floor on 9/12/2001 talking about spending the attacks in a bunker. Why lie about 9/11 terror attacks?”
Biden’s false claim regarding his visit to Ground Zero adds to the backlash the president has received for breaking tradition and not visiting one of the terrorist attack locations on the anniversary of 9/11.
Chairwoman of 9/11 Families United Terry Strada, whose husband was killed on 9/11, told Fox News that Biden’s speech in Alaska was not what the families of 9/11 victims needed to hear.
“I caught that blunder as soon as I heard him say it,” she said. “If he can be that flippant about something so important, it made it impossible to believe anything that came out of his mouth after. The one thing the 9/11 Community wanted to hear from our president on the anniversary was accountability.”
“He never once spoke to us about what we need, justice and transparency,” Strada added. “It sounded more like a campaign speech with a lot of hot air.”
Justice 9/11 President Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed in the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center, described Biden’s speech as “tone deaf,” claiming that the president is “not paying attention or purposefully ignoring the 9/11 community.”
“On your way back from meeting with the ruler of the country that is accused of supporting 9/11, he chooses to stop in Alaska,” Eagleson said. “You have to wonder what he is thinking. It sends very upsetting signals to the 9/11 community.”
